Zambia Mines Minister to Seek Vedanta Meeting Over Job Cuts

Zambia’s mines minister Christopher Yaluma will seek a meeting with the chief executive officer of
Vedanta Resources Plc (VED)’s local unit over the company’s plans to
cut 1,529 jobs.

“We would very much like to discuss with them and find a
solution that is not detrimental to them and not detrimental to
the government,” Yaluma said today by mobile phone from Lusaka,
the capital of Africa’s biggest copper producer.

Konkola Copper Mines Plc may reduce its workforce as it
seeks to boost productivity at its mines by relying less on
labor and more on machines, Chief Executive Officer Kishore Kumar said yesterday. The firings are at odds with the
government’s plans to create employment in a country where over
60 percent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day.

The company plans to cut the jobs by the end of March,
spokeswoman Joy Sata said yesterday by mobile phone from
Chingola, Copperbelt province.

Konkola Copper Mines said in May it would fire 2,000
workers because of rising costs and falling metal prices. It
reversed that plan the following month after talks with
government and labor unions.

“We don’t try to prescribe or dictate, we try to enter
into a discussion,” Yaluma said. The talks will include himself
and Fackson Shamenda, the labor minister, he said.

South Africa-based Shoprite, the continent’s biggest
grocer, reinstated 2,200 Zambian workers it fired last month
after the government threatened to cancel its trading license
unless it took the employees back, according to media reports.